Stably uniform affinoids are sheafy (Q1651404)

The paper under review contributes to the foundations of affinoid pre-adic spaces and, hence, perfectoid spaces. Most notably, the authors show that the structure presheaf \(\mathcal{O}_X\) of the affinoid pre-adic space \(X=\text{Spa}(R,R^+)\) associated with a Tate affinoid ring \((R,R^+)\) is a sheaf of complete topological rings whenever \((R,R^+)\) is stable uniform, i.e. whenever for each rational subset \(U\subseteq X\), the ring of power-bounded functions \(\mathcal{O}_X(U)^o\) on \(U\) is bounded. This criterion provides an independent proof of Scholze's result (see [\textit{V. G. Berkovich}, Spectral theory and analytic geometry over non-archimedean fields. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (1990; Zbl 0715.14013)] Theorem (6.3 (iii)) that \(\mathcal{O}_X\) is a sheaf when \(X\) is perfectoid, avoiding the machinery of almost mathematics and tilting. The authors also provide various explicit examples where \(\mathcal{O}_X\) is not a sheaf. The paper under review is carefully and lucidly written; its content is summarised and contextualised in the introductory first section. The authors point towards recent applications of their results in the context of Scholze's theory of diamonds, and they provide pedagogical asides. In the preliminary second section of the paper, the authors review the definition of (affinoid) Tate rings, and they establish an elementary Lemma which provides an explicit description of the topology of the completion of a Tate ring. For the cover \(X=U\cup V\), \(U=\{|t|\ge 1\}\) and \(V=\{|t|\le 1\}\), associated with an element \(t\in R\), they then provide a detailed description of the natural restriction short sequence \(0\to\mathcal{O}_X (X)\to\mathcal{O}_X(U)\oplus\mathcal{O}_X(V)\to\mathcal{O}_X(U\cap V)\), and they explicit show that this sequence is exact if and only if the map \(\mathcal{O}_X(X)\to\mathcal{O}_X(U)\oplus\mathcal{O}_X(V)\) is strict at the level of non-complete topological localizations of \(R\). In the third section of the paper, the authors proceed to establish their main result. They define a Tate ring \(R\) to be uniform if and only if its subring of power-bounded elements is bounded, and they explicitly show that if \(R\) is uniform, then the restriction short sequence from Section 2 is exact. Using Laurent covers, they infer that \(\mathcal{O}_X\) is at sheaf whenever \(R\) is stably uniform. They use this result to prove the fact, previously established by Scholze via different means, that \(\mathcal{O}_X\) is a sheaf if \((R,R^+)\) is a perfectoid algebra over a perfectoid field \(k\). They also infer a new criterion for checking the perfectoid property, showing that over a perfectoid field \(k\) of positive characteristic, a stably uniform complete Tate affinoid \(k\)-algebra is perfectoid if and only if this holds locally w.r.t. any rational covering. (The authors state that it is not known whether the corresponding statement holds in characteristic zero or whether stable uniformity can be weakened to uniformity. In general, e.g. without uniformity assumption, the perfectoid property cannot be checked locally; see the second example discussed below.) In the fourth and final section of the paper, the authors provide 6 different examples, working over a complete non-archimedean field \(k\) and calling an affinoid \(k\)-algebra sheafy if and only if the associated presheaf \(\mathcal{O}_X\) of complete topological rings is a sheaf. First, they establish an elementary Lemma, showing that a grading on a Tate \(k\)-algebra w.r.t. a torsion-free abelian group induces a grading on the ring of power-bounded elements. They then provide a first explicit example, of a finitely generated \(k\)-algebra with a non-zero nilpotent element for which \(\mathcal{O}_X\) is not a sheaf due to failure of the first sheaf property. Next, they provide an second example, of a locally perfectoid pre-adic space whichis not perfectoid, by `perfectifying' the first example. The authors then proceed to provide an interesting explicit third example, of a pre-adic space with a locally zero function that is globally non-nilpotent. Next, they give an explicit fourth example, where the second sheaf property fails, i.e. where glueing fails. They then give a fifth example, of a uniform space that is not stably uniform. Finally, they give a sixth example, of a uniform non-sheafy space.